Part 87: Mission 24 - Various "Like Yourselves" - Part 1
Alright, this mission is a step-up from 22 (moon route) but it’ll still be fine seeing how we’re bringing our good units this time.
Are you ready for the Nadesico finale? If so…GET TO BURNING!
This here is probably my favorite Nadesico BGM (yes, even more than Gekiganger’s theme)…
Seeing Wärter pop out of nowhere, Kusakabe exhorts the brave Jovian soldiers that the Evil Earth Empire has brought the fight to their very homes; he tells them to defeat us here – for peace in the universe, for their future and for great justice!
Kusakabe reminds them of the final battle of Gekiganger against the Evil Empire but Akito yells at him not to misuse that anime any further but Kusakabe isn’t listening; he adds that it’s only natural for an Evil Empire to bring ruin – such was taught by their bible – which is why they, the Jovians, must put an end to Earth’s plans!
Bless points out that Kusakabe’s inflexible stereotyping of others sounds pretty evil to begin with, and Kazuma says he should try moving the crowd without resorting to Geki Ganger if he's really some Ally of Justice.
Akito doesn’t know if any one side is right or wrong but what he’s sure is that there's been entirely too much war and Taiga urges Yurika to give our people orders for battle.
Her orders are not to think of defeating the Jovians, but destroying the ruins.
As Taiga and Akatsuki gape in astonishment at this wanton destruction of potentially world-changing tech, Yurika cheerfully says that these are the source of the fighting, and hence should obviously go.
Ruri adds that the adults have no excuse to care, given that everyone stumbled across them by accident anyway.
When she adds that Taiga should feel free to ignore her "child's" words, Taiga can only sigh and give up; this gives Bless the biggest laugh he’s had in years and praises Yurika for her marvelous argument.
Even Leo figures that the Ruins' power is too great for mankind to handle, and Taiga decides to go along and leave Yurika in full command.
The plan is to open a path through the enemy to the Ruins and Minato is ready to help, saying that she’s done resting.
As the game said, the victory condition for this mission is to get the Nadesico inside the ruins to win.
You could, technically, beat the Jovians without taking a single unit down but what’s the fun (or profit) in that?
Everything is far away, though, so all we can do is boost some morale with Mike.
All our other units move up closer.
The enemy phase simply involves the Jovian Battas moving up closer (the elite mooks hang back for now), so let’s go straight back to Player Phase!
Mike’s Disk X will be invaluable here so let’s feed him one of them buggers.
Along with the morale, this gives him a level and Support Defend L2.
Also, before I forget, let me (finally) show off Support Request.
Yes, he can only use this once per mission but the beauty of giving it to the Dragon Brothers is that each one can pull it off (and I believe Chouryuujin and Gekiryuujin count separately, too).
There’s rather few cannon fodder to build up our morale so Batta kills should be spread out evenly.
Blade has a different job, though. He can zip right up to the main group with Accelerate so let’s park him there and start tenderizing the stronger folks
The Ruins offer no regeneration bonuses so there’s no problem in witling them down.
Kouji…I am disappoint!
Might as well feed this to Akito.
: Damn it! How did this happen!: You said Geki Ganger taught you about justice! Was that a lie?!
This kill might not have seem important but it yields nice prizes!
Like so! Akito levels up and learns Valor.
With all the Battas down, we start moving up. Kazuma slaps Blade’s Katonbo some more.
Can you do it, Gai?
Damn it…
Everyone else moves closer and, while we’re at it, Boss heals those piddly 10 damage that Kouji took – this is, surprisingly, enough to bump him, Nuke and Mucha up a level (and teach him Iron Wall).
Enemy Phase!
These Jovian Capital Ships have a huge fuck-off cannon and they’re not afraid to use it.
Fortunately, its accuracy is piss.
From that distance, Blade can only counter with Crash Intrude.
Still, like I said above, they don’t regen and most pilots get, at least, 1 morale for each attack that hits.
The weakass Katonbo decides to get clever with Boss despite the fact that he’s under Kouji’s watchful gaze.
This one, however, goes for Kazuma who’s more than willing to respond.
Good, good.
Kusakabe in his Kagurazuki Fortress tries to take a shot at Blade but his accuracy is, like all Jovians, crap.
Genichirou fails at hitting Blade and takes a Crash Intrude to the face.
Finally, Saburouta tries and fails to snipe.
Player Phase!
Genichirou is pretty much the same as in mission 22 (with higher stats and Prevail L6) but Saburouta is…not a step up from Tsukumo.
While the unit is the same and Saburouta’s stats are pretty much on par with Tsukumo’s, his skills focus more on attacking (trading Commander and Prevail for…Multicombo L1); this doesn’t strike me as a rather good choice seeing how the Daitetsujin is better suited for defense than attack.
Either way, the real big bad here is Kusakabe and his Kagurazuki Fortress: this thing has a SHITLOAD of HP and, while its armor isn’t top notch it’s still one of the bulkier enemies we’ve seen thus far; its armor is low probably to compensate for its 2L size (which is SRW’s way of saying “FUCKING HUGE”) but, seeing how size modifiers are still broken, there’s no penalty.
Kusakabe’s stats are all around good but he doesn’t excel on anything (i.e. our best physical/ranged attackers, best defenders, best dodgers will have him beat on raw numbers but he hangs by close to their level).
As all Jovian non-bug machines, it has a Distortion Field and you reeeeeeeally want to have Volfogg around to take that shit away (and probably Mike to Disc X his armor into oblivion).
Contrary to many other units, though, he has no EN Regen so you could make him run out before moving in and then you’d only need to worry about his “weak” missiles.
Kusakabe’s weapons are all very long range and he has, of course, the same MAP Gravity Blaste than the Jovian Super Robots have (it shoots in the same pattern, too).
Also, like his brethren, all his weapons (save for his missiles with +30%) have low accuracy modifiers.
Kusakabe’s Skills are uninspired but give him a solid base:
- Prevail L6 (of course)
- Support Attack L1
- Commander L2 (take extra care when going after Tsukuomi and Saburouta because of this bonus).
If you don’t care to empty his EN before moving in, try to keep the group evenly spread out to minimize the chances of being tagged by his MAP (though even Supers should have a decent chance of evading).
Of course, aside from the challenge/annoyance/cash/experience of fighting him and his cronies, why should you care to kill him when you can simply park the Nadesico in the Ruins and call it quits? Well…
Secret Alert! Wanna get 200k bucks and THREE secret units later in the game? Get crackin’ on Kusakabe and take him out before sending the Nadesico into the ruins!
With my requisite wall-o’-text out of the way, let’s move along.
Following Enryuu’s work, Ryouko will swoop in with the Field Lancer.
Ah. That’s just right.
We’re moving along towards that Disc X!
Tetsuya will teach that Katonbo to bully Boss.
That’ll learn yer.
With Iron Wall, let’s send Kouji in and hope that he draws the attention of a good chunk of them.
Kazuma takes a shot at the Tetsujin from outside formation – we’re getting a little crowded down in the middle and that’ll certainly invite MAPs.
Hikaru is moving down a bit more and we might as well not waste the turn…
Blade takes one final jab at the Tetsujin.
Leaving it ready for Getter
No problem.
Next up in the Denjin. Gai punches him some and shows how a TRUE super robot shrugs off damage.
Enemy Phase!
Ah, here we go. That capital ship took the bait and went for Kouji.
You can see that these things are bulky but they’ll be much softer when our morale builds up some more.
For a second I got worried with this attack but that extra BP in Skill has paid off, with a timely Sword Cut.
The Denjin MAPs and misses everyone (Boss has Alert cast, of course…)
The other Majin goes for Fuuryuu but let’s see how he likes some facing off against China!
As usual, don’t fuck with the Chinese.
Fuuryuu is targeted again and, this time, Yurika has to defend him.
Next, the other Denjin attacks Mike and gets a dose of
in return.
I knew Kusakabe wouldn’t miss a chance to MAP.
Still, he only manages to tag the Valstork.
Genichirou also MAPs – his attack takes a particle off the Kaiser’s paintjob before missing Tetsuya and Izumi.
Saburouta takes a more sensible approach and goes for the Nadesico.
Eh. You hurt him as bad as he hurt you.
Player Phase!
Enryuu and Hyoryuu tag-team a nearby Tetsujin, destroying its weapon’s power and accuracy.
Enryuu then calls for Chouryuujin and moves in for further damage, with some help from Ryouko.
Not bad at all.
With Iron Wall, Gekiryuujin moves ahead.
Mike nabs another easy kill.
Up north, Kazuma is going to show that Denjin and Majin how the buddy system can turn against you.
Staying together only makes it easier to kill you both.
Blade follows up with a chain attack of his own.
Gai is in a good position to MAP not only them but also to hit Genichirou.
Very good.
That Majin is weak enough that Izumi can move over to finish it off.
Boom.
Even with only two mooks, Bless’ MAP is strong enough that it’s a good choice against them.
I was hoping that both would crit but that’s still decent.
Volfogg keeps the party going on the Majin.
While Kouji spreads the love around both units.
Ryouko is close enough to kill the weakened Majin and further weaken the Denjin.
SLIGHTLY weaken the Denjin…
Anyway, that kill gives Kouji the last bit of morale that he needed.
Akito takes a chunk off the Denjin’s remaining HP.
And Tetsuya comes over to nab the kill.
Not much else we can do but we might as well weaken Genichirou a lil bit more.
Aye, that works.
Finally, Hikaru is the last one and gets the first hit on the southern capital ship.
Enemy Phase!
The northern capital ship once more goes for the Nadesico…I guess I should heal it a bit.
The other ship goes for Tetsuya, who takes the hit like a champ.
Kusakabe is still using his MAP like there’s no tomorrow.
Genichirou makes better use of it, though.
Ouchies.
Saburouta also manages to tag the Mazinkaiser for a wee bit of damage.
I won’t even heal that, as they’ll pay for it tenfold if they trip Kouji’s Prevail.
Player Phase!
Casting Assail with Horis (and Invincible with Akane), the Valstork moves closer and aims to show how a real ship works.
How do you like that?
Kouji keeps the ball rolling with a nice Fire Blaster.
Meanwhile, Boss is STILL inching along to get in attack range. He might as well Repair the Nadesico a bit.
Ryouko and Izumi gather up to set the combination attacks, dealing further damage to the Jovian capital ship.
Sadly, Hikaru is a little short on morale, so we’ll have to settle for a distortion attack.
Ho-hum…
Volfogg takes it down just a little bit more.
We then open the way for Tetsuya and Kouji to finish the job.
Very good.
If Kusakabe doesn’t care to hit his underlings, he could potentially MAP several people.
Chouryuujin and Gekiryuujin will reduce his gravity cannon down to the power level of a Super-Soaker.
Haw, haw!
Gekiryuujin might as well move closer and slap Saburouta around a little.
Up top, Gai and Ryouma alone take out over 1/3rd of the ships total health.
Blade can’t Voltekka from this range, so we use the next best thing.
Hm, reasonable…
Kazuma takes it down a bit more and Mike takes another kill.
Now, once Saburouta and Genichirou get destroyed, he’ll have enough morale to Disc X Kusakabe.
Only Akito has a move left so he might as well give Saburouta a piece of his mind.
A rather small piece but still…
Now, all we have left to do is finish off Genichirou, Saburouta and Kusakabe but I think this is enough for today.
Next time, we’ll complete this damn mission and see how much Banpresto can change in the Nadesico finale.
See you all then!